Monthly Archives: July 2006

Well, after a long and fruitful relationship with Wikipedia, I have to call it quits. Why you ask? Is it because I was an idiot and used it as a reference in a college paper? No, no, that’s not it. Is it because I have been defamed on the site and my attempts to edit and fix my own page on it were spurned? No, that’s not it either. Is it because the information that you can find on that site is not as wonderful as once thought, and that a different, better entitity has come up from the depths of the void to replace it? No… No that’s not quite it either.

The reason is – Smartfilter (or at least the group that is responsible for blocking pages at my workplace) has flagged it as “Personal Pages”. They did this a while ago with Slashdot, which was reversed within a day. They did it with BoingBoing (nudity, actually), and that hasn’t been reversed. Lifehacker? “Criminal Skills”. So now when I want to read up on, say, “Windows Management Instrumentation”, or “Reel Big Fish”, or “Perl”, if I attempt to visit Wikipedia, I will rack up “you hit the firewall limits” points, which may be exchanged with my boss for written warnings or dismissal.